After all this 360/PS3 talk, it made me want to start up a video game thread. This thread is strictly for talk about upcoming games and your reviews on that certain game. I'll start out with two I'm a bit disappointed with but I know I'll end up loving anyway. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and GTA IV.

After seeing the previews of it couple months back, I was impressed, yet disappointed. I was hoping they could expand the game to somewhere other than the US. Don't get me wrong, the Big Apple is great but Liberty City is "supposedly" New York. I was hoping it could go out to Europe to places like Paris, Milan, Rome, Barcelona. Those were the rumors coming out of Rockstar back then.

All in all, the graphics look superb. They've made the peds you see on the streets actually do things you'd see people doing in New York. It'll be interesting when it comes out, can't wait. Do you have any complaints from what you've seen so far from the previews and details of IV?

And then of course, the Call of Duty franchise. While the graphics look dope, I'm very disappointed that they chose to move on to modern day wars. Wasn't Call of Duty a franchise based on the world wars? Shouldn't they focus on WWI? Or continue the WWII even though it ended in Call of Duty 3. They focused so much on Europe, they forgot places such as Pearl Harbor and the Phillipines. Any comments on this?

The GTA IV news I've heard is making it out to be pretty massive - like it will take you one hour to get from one end of the city to the other. I can get across Oakland in half that time in real life, so I hope it doesn't get annoying. Gameplay wise I am still in the dark about it.

I really enjoyed Call of Duty 3 and actually liked it more than Gears of War for multiplayer. It is hard though with the fourth installment: from the trailers I've seen it looks like it is going to be leaps and bounds ahead of COD3 but I am disappointed for the lack of WWII era stuff. I can't blame them though, they've made three games in the flooded genre already. I just hope the keep enough of the core elements of the COD3 multiplayer that made so addicting.

I don't care much about the CoD games but I'm a big fan of the GTA franchise. And I can't wait to get the new one... on PC, as I hate to play console games. I want to be able to mod things.

As for the games, all the previous rumors had it taking place in London, so having NYC (again) as the setting came as a big surprise. And I can't say I'm against it. Adapting to driving by the other lane would be difficult had London been the pick (I know, I know, it's GTA... who cares about following rules?).

Still, I would have loved to have an asian setting for the GTA next game. Hong Kong or Japan would have been great settings, much better than any USA or european city.

As for the gameplay, we all know what to expect. I don't the gamepley will change much from the previous GTA games (although there are some rumors about the game having a more "real life" feeling, with traits like fuel on the cars... but it's only a rumor).

The other game I can't wait to get my hands on (although it's a long term wish) it's Fallout 3. Bethsoft is working on it, so I have my fingers crossed hoping they don't f*ck it as much as they did with Oblivion. The teaser trailer looks pretty impressive and follows the style of Fallout, tho, so that's good news.

Thunder wrote:But TMC, did you really feel that Bethesda screwed the pooch on Elder Scrolls IV? It's the only Elder Scrolls I've played but I found it to be really enjoyable.

Well, I feel like it lacked a lot of things that make a good RPG be a GREAT RPG. The two main flaws were the conversation system (the minigame sucked big time) and (the worst of all) the levelling system. Having the whole world level up with the character must have been one of the worst design decisions ever taken in a video game. It kinda kills the purpose of improving the character. You can go anywhere and do anything at level 1. You're able to end the game at level 1. The whole levelling thing ruined the game for me.

I didn't like the story (well, I didn't dislike it either. It's just that it was average, nothing outstanding).

But these are only the bad points, Oblivion also had lots of good things (an enormous world to explore, lots of good quests and, above anything else, freedom) that I hope will be a good base for future developments of the franchise.

I think that my problem with Oblivion is that that game had the potential to be the best CRPG ever... and turned up being just a good game. Disappointing would be the word.

I see where you're coming from. The conversation system was stupid and therefore I never tried to persuade anyone, nevermind try to develop it as a skill. It might've been more tempting to if you couldn't just buy a potion for cheap that did all the work for you.

And the levelling thing was bothersome too. I can see why they did it, but it would've been nicer to struggle more in the beginning and just be a total bamf near the end instead of always having an easy fight. It might have been the cost of having the extreme amount of freedom that you did have though.

Even with all those flaws, I stil rank it as one of the top RPGs I've played in recent years. Of course I didn't have that huge of expectations heading in, which might be why I can't label it disappointing.

Thunder wrote:And the levelling thing was bothersome too. I can see why they did it, but it would've been nicer to struggle more in the beginning and just be a total bamf near the end instead of always having an easy fight. It might have been the cost of having the extreme amount of freedom that you did have though.

Yeah, to me, the levelling was the worst problem of the game. I like the idea behind it, but it can't be handled the way it was. Maybe levelling creatures between a certain range, so the world adapts to the strenght of the character, instead of levelling with him at the same rate... I don't know, but I hope it's a lesson for future games.

Thunder wrote:Even with all those flaws, I stil rank it as one of the top RPGs I've played in recent years. Of course I didn't have that huge of expectations heading in, which might be why I can't label it disappointing.

There are so few (worthy) CRPGs nowadays that I had big hopes on Oblivion. That might have been part of the problem. I really, really wanted to love the game... and it fell a bit short. Probably more my fault than the game, tho.